Combination of spiral nozzle and column tray leading to a new direction on the distillation equipment innovation

• First applied spiral nozzle as mass transfer element.
• Hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics of the SNT were investigated.
• Bubble visualization experiment for single spiral nozzle was set.
• The SNT presents an excellent performance on efficiency and operation flexibility.

The hydrodynamics and mass transfer performance of a novel spiral nozzle tray (SNT), using the commercial spiral nozzle as the mass transfer element, was investigated in this research. The hydrodynamic performance parameters include pressure drop, weeping, clear liquid height and entrainment. All the experiments were conducted in an air–water system under atmospheric pressure. The mass transfer efficiency of the SNT was studied in a stainless steel column for separating the mixture of cyclohexane and n-heptane. The bubble visualization experiment was set up to determine the cause why the SNT had such particular mass transfer efficiency. The results indicate that the SNT can be considered as a promising tray for distillation. Combining the spiral nozzle with the column tray will be a new direction for the development of the column internals.

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